I'm inspired from the play on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJe2IXlJZWw&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLFBA0BFCEF03B1221
This is the first prompt book I've ever made for the final project of the Introduction to Drama subject. I worked on this project with several of my classmates, I was helped by Iffah Adilah, my junior, in adding the sound effect and the background music, while other members of the team work on the costume, stage design, etc. Actually, I still want to makes it becomes more creepy, but I don't know how. Can you gimme some ideas? you know, it such an interesting activity, but it drives me crazy because I have to fight with the deadline. Until now, deadline is still my blood enemy...whoooohooooo... Enjoy! :D
William Butler Yeats
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
A Boy An Old Man
Scene.—A ruined house and a bare tree in the background. Playing music background [Behold the Darkness, By Medwyn Goodall from 00.00 to 01.11] & sound effect: night sound and the sound of the wind keep playing softly during the play. The stage is dark. The ruin house is in the center of the stage, the bare tree is in the left of the ruin house. There is also a big stone near the tree. The light focuses on the tree and behind the window of the ruin house (shows the silhouette of a woman) fade in slowly. White smoke emerges from the left corner of the stage. The background music fades out; the sound of the wind keeps playing during the play. The lights in the stage fade in.
The old man and the boy come to the stage from the right corner. The boy carries a bag on his left shoulder, while the old man carries another bag with his right hand. The boy stands near the stone, while the old man stands on the right side of the ruin house.
Boy. Half-door, hall door,
Hither and thither day and night
Hill or hollow, shouldering this pack
Hearing you talk. [angry tone]
Old Man. [throwing the bag that he holds to the ground, sounds effect: the sounds of the coin while the bag is thrown] Study that house. [pointing at the ruin house with his right hand]
I think about its jokes and stories; [staring at the ruin house, wondering]
I try to remember what the butler
Said to a drunken gamekeeper
In mid-October, but I cannot. [staring at the boy]
If I cannot, none living can.
Where are the jokes and stories of a house,
Its threshold gone to patch a pig-sty?
Boy. So you have come this path before? [examining the house]
Old Man. The moonlight falls upon the path,
The shadow of a cloud upon the house,
And that's symbolical; [pause, counts three staring at the tree] study that tree, [come towards the bare tree, pointing it with his right hand]
What is it like?
Boy.[looking at the tree, then facing to the left corner of the stage]
A silly old man. [grinning at the old man]
Old Man. It's like—no matter what it's like
I saw it a year ago stripped bare as now,
So I chose a better trade. [while speaking, comes to the front center of the stage, wandering, the boy is listening carefully]]
I saw it fifty years ago
Before the thunderbolt had riven it,
Green leaves, ripe leaves, leaves thick as butter,
Fat, greasy life. Stand there [pointing the ruin house with his left hand] and look,
Because there is somebody in that house
[The Boy puts down pack and stands in the doorway, tries to find anybody at the house].
Boy. There's nobody here.
Old Man. There's somebody thereBoy. [trying to look at the inside of the house by peeking through the window] The floor is gone, the windows gone,
And where there should be roof there's sky,
And here's a bit of an egg-shell thrown
Out of a jackdaw's nest.
Old Man. But there are some
That do not care what's gone, what's left:
The souls in Purgatory that come back
To habitations and familiar spots.
Boy. Your wits are out again.
Old Man. Re-live
Their transgressions, and that not once
But many times; they know at last
The consequence of those transgressions
Whether upon others or upon themselves;
Upon others, others may bring help,
For when the consequence is at an end
The dream must end; if upon themselves,
There is no help but in themselves
And in the mercy of God.
Boy. I have had enough! [angry tone]
Talk to the jackdaws, [pointing at the jackdaws nets on the bare tree] if talk you must.
Old Man. Stop! [yelling] Sit there upon that stone. [pointing at the stone near the tree with his right hand]
That is the house where I was born. [pointing at the house with his right hand]
Boy. [sitting on the stone, curious expression] The big old house that was burnt down?
Old Man. My mother that was your grand-dam owned it,
This scenery and this countryside,
Kennel and stable, horse and hound—
She had a horse at the Curragh, and there met
My father, a groom in a training stable,
Looked at him and married him.
Her mother never spoke to her again,
And she did right.
Boy. What's right and wrong?
My grand-dad got the girl and the money.
Old Man. Looked at him and married him,
And he squandered everything she had.
She never knew the worst, because
She died in giving birth to me, [long pause, counts five]
But now she knows it all, being dead.
Great people lived and died in this house; [comes towards the house, touching its broken wall]
Magistrates, colonels, members of Parliament,
Captains and Governors, and long ago
Men that had fought at Aughrim and the Boyne [pause, counts three, comes towards the boy]
Some that had gone on Government work
To London or to India came home to die,
Or came from London every spring
To look at the may-blossom in the park.
They had loved the trees that he cut down
To pay what he had lost at cards
Or spent on horses, drink and women;
Had loved the house, had loved all
The intricate passages of the house,
But he killed the house; [glancing at the house] to kill a house
Where great men grew up, married, died,
I here declare a capital offence.
Boy. My God, but you had luck! Grand clothes,
And maybe a grand horse to ride.
Old Man. That he might keep me upon his level
[shaking his head three times, staring at the boy] He never sent me to school, but some
Half-loved me for my half of her:
A gamekeeper's wife taught me to, read,
A Catholic curate taught me Latin.
There were old books and books made fine
By eighteenth-century French binding, books
Modern and ancient, books by the ton.
Boy. What education have you given me? [asking the question sneeringly]
Old Man. I gave the education that befits
A bastard that a pedlar got
Upon a tinker's daughter in a ditch.
When I had come to sixteen years old
My father burned down the house when drunk.
Boy. But that is my age, [his left hand on his chest] sixteen years old,
At the Puck Fair.
Old Man. [Stretching his hands] And everything was burnt;
Books, library, all were burnt.
Boy. Is what I have heard upon the road the truth, [rises from the stone, and comes towards the old man]
That you killed him in the burning house?
Old Man. [pause, counts three, looking around the stage, making sure there is nobody except them] There's nobody here but our two selves?
Boy. Nobody, Father. [shaking his head slowly]
Old Man. I stuck him with a knife, [standing near the boy, half-whispering, taking out the knife from his pocket]
That knife that cuts my dinner now,
And after that I left him in the fire. [put the knife to the pocket again, pause, counts three]
They dragged him out, somebody saw [comes to the front of the stage]
The knife-wound but could not be certain [half-whispering, talking straightly to the boy’s left ear]
Because the body was all black and charred. [pause, counts three]
Then some that were his drunken friends
Swore they would put me upon trial,
Spoke of quarrels, a threat I had made.
The gamekeeper gave me some old clothes,
I ran away, worked here and there
Till I became a pedlar on the roads,
No good trade, but good enough
Because I am my father's son,
Because of what I did or may do. [long pause, counts five, wondering, staring at the audience, sound effect: the sound of the horse hooves with echoing effect [HORSE, GALLOP - SINGLE HORSE GALLOPING ON GRAVEL: ON BOARD LOOP, ANIMAL] fades in]
Listen to the hoof-beats! Listen, listen!
Boy. [pause, Trying to hear the sound] I cannot hear a sound.
Old Man. Beat! Beat!
This night is the anniversary
Of my mother's wedding night,
Or of the night wherein I was begotten.
My father is riding from the public-house,
A whiskey-bottle under his arm. [long pause, counts five, the white smoke emerges from the left corner of the stage, the light behind the window of the ruin house is getting brighter, showing the silhouette of a young girl, the sounds of hoof-beats is getting louder as if there is someone riding a horse comes towards the back side of the ruin house]
Look at the window; she stands there [pointing at the window]
Listening, the servants are all in bed,
She is alone, he has stayed late
Bragging and drinking in the public-house.
Boy. There's nothing but an empty gap in the wall. [the boy tries to finds the girl]
You have made it up. No, you are mad! [shaking his head, coming to the right corner of the stage, facing the audiences]
You are getting madder every day.
Old Man. It's louder now because he rides
Upon a gravelled avenue
All grass to-day. [the hoof-beats stop suddenly] The hoof-beat stops,
He has gone to the other side of the house, [pointing at the back left corner of the stage with his right hand]
Gone to the stable, put the horse up.
[the old man staring at the window, the silhouette disappears, the window gets dark] She has gone down to open the door.
This night she is no better than her man
And does not mind that he is half drunk,
She is mad about him. They mount the stairs,
[the window is lit up again, showing the silhouettes of a man and the woman face to face] She brings him into her own chamber.
And that is the marriage-chamber now.
The window is dimly lit again.
[comes towards the window as if he were talking to the silhouettes on the window, tries to prevent what will happen inside]
Do not let him touch you! It is not true
That drunken men cannot beget,
And if he touch he must beget
And you must bear his murderer. [pause, counts three]
Deaf! Both deaf) If I should throw
A stick or a stone they would not hear; [staring at the boy]
And that's a proof my wits are out.
But there's a problem: she must live [comes towards the boy, pointing at the window]
Through everything in exact detail,
Driven to it by remorse, and yet [comes to the front of the stage, facing the audiences]
Can she renew the sexual act
And find no pleasure in it, and if not,
If pleasure and remorse must both be there,
Which is the greater? [the boy silently takes a money bag from the old man’s bag, hold and hide it behind his back]
I lack schooling.
Go fetch Tertullian; he and I
Will ravel all that problem out
Whilst those two lie upon the mattress
Begetting me. [realizing that the boys took something from his bag]
[talking with angry tone, comes towards the boy, the boy step[s back] Come back! Come back!
And so you thought to slip away,
My bag of money between your fingers, [pointing at the bag near the stone]
And that I could not talk and see! [running towards his bag, check the money bag]
You have been rummaging in the pack. [throwing the bag]
[The light in the window has faded out.]
Boy. You never gave me my right share. [talking with angry tone, steps back]
Old Man. And had I given it, young as you are,
You would have spent it upon drink.
Boy. What if I did? I had a right
To get it and spend it as I chose. [facing the old man, hiding the bag behind his back]
Old Man. Give me that bag and no more words. [asking for the bag with menaces]
Boy. I will not. [Stepping back, shaking his head]
Old Man. I will break your fingers. [clenching his right fit]
[They struggle for the bag. In the struggle it drops, scattering the money. Sound effect: coins dropped. The Old Man staggers but does not fall. They stand looking at each other. The window is lit up. A man is seen pouring whiskey into a glass . Sound effects: the sound of the wind getting loder, the fog or white smoke emerges more, the light that focuses on the bare tree gets brighter, makes the tree can be seen clearer]
Boy. What if I killed you? You killed my grand-dad,
Because you were young and he was old.
Now I am young and you are old.
Old Man [staring at window]. Better-looking, those sixteen years—
Boy. What are you muttering?
Old Man. Younger—and yet
She should have known he was not her kind. [the light behind the window gets brighter, showing the silhouette of showing a left side of a man holding a glass with his right hand and a bottle of whiskey in front of him]
Boy. What are you saying? Out with it! [Old Man points to window.
[staring at the window, gets shocked] My God! The window is lit up [comes towards the window]
And somebody stands there, although
The floorboards are all burnt away.
Old Man. The window is lit up because my father
Has come to find a glass for his whiskey.
He leans there like some tired beast.
Boy. A dead, living, murdered man! [talking with confused expression, staring at the window]
Old Man. ‘Then the bride-sleep fell upon Adam’:
Where did I read those words?
And yet
There's nothing leaning in the window
But the impression upon my mother’s mind;
Being dead she is alone in her remorse.
Boy. A body that was a bundle of old bones [steps back, stays away from the ruin house and the old man, facing the front left corner of the stage]
Before I was born. Horrible! Horrible! [He covers his eyes, sobbing].
Old Man. That beast there would know nothing, being nothing, [points at the window, silently comes towards the boy]
If I should kill a man under the window [silently take the knife from his pocket out, holds it with his right hand]
He would not even turn his head. [the old man covers the boy’s mouth with his left hand, He stabs the Boy. The boy screams out loud, background music [hans zimmer_inception soundtrack, 1:05-1:28] sounds effect: the sound of the wind, several persons, male and female whispering with echoing effect, the stage gets darker, the fog emerges more, the light on the tree gets brighter]
My father and my son on the same jack-knife! [counts three]
That finishes—there—there—there—
[He stabs again and again. The windows grows dark. The boy lies down. The music fades out]
Hush-a-bye baby, thy father’s a knight, [the old man bends on his knees, holds the boy, as if he sings the dead boy a lullaby, the whispering sound fades out]
Thy mother a lady, lovely and bright.
No. that is something that I read in a book,
And if I sing it must be to my mother,
And I lack rhyme.
[The stage has grown dark except where the tree stands in white light.
[the old man gets up slowly, leaves the dead boy on the ground. Comes towards the tree, pointing at the tree, facing the audience]
Study that tree.
It stands there like a purified soul
All cold, sweet, glistening light.
[long pause, facing the tree, the audience is in his left, bends on his knees] Dear mother, the window is dark again, [pointing at the window with his right hand]
But you are in the light because
I finished all that consequence.
[pointing at the dead boy with his left hand, comes towards the dead boy] I killed that lad because had he grown up
He would have struck a woman’s fancy,
Begot, and passed pollution on.
I am a wretched foul old man
And therefore harmless. [bends on his knees, takes the knife from the boy’s body]
When I have stuck
This old jack-knife into a sod [raising the knife proudly with his right hand]
And pulled it out all bright again,
And picked up all the money that he dropped,
I'll to a distant place, and there
Tell my old jokes among new men. [long pause]
[He cleans the knife with his left hand and begins to pick up money, holds the knife with his left hand and the money with his right hand. The sound of hoof beats: HORSE, GALLOP - SINGLE HORSE GALLOPING ON GRAVEL: ON BOARD LOOP, ANIMAL fades in]
[musing, long pause, suddenly throws out the money he has collected, frightened expression, steps back, covers his ears with his hands] Hoof-beats! Dear God, [puts the bag in his right, stretches his hands, look at the upper part of the stage, as if talking to the God, speaks loudly]
How quickly it returns [worried expression, the hoof beats sound gets louder, sound effect: HORSE, GALLOP - SINGLE HORSE GALLOPING ON GRAVEL: ON BOARD LOOP, ANIMAL]—beat—beat—!
Her mind cannot hold up that dream.
Twice a murderer and all for nothing,
And she must animate that dead night
Not once but many times! [throws the knife, holding his head with both of his hands]
O God, [pause, looks up, raises his left hand, speaks loudly]
Release my mother's soul from its dream!
Mankind can do no more. Appease [bends on his knees]
The misery of the living and the remorse of the dead. [bows his head, long pause, the stage light gets dark, the light behind the window gets brighter, showing the silhouette of a woman, the light focuses on the tree gets brighter for about ten seconds, background music: ….sound effect: the sound of the wind sounds softly, the whispering man and woman, all the lights gets dark]
THE END
Source:
SINGLE HORSE GALLOPING ON GRAVEL (http://www.sounddogs.com/results.asp?Type=1&CategoryID=1003&SubcategoryID=29)
Backsound: hans zimmer ; 1:05- 1:28
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0kGAz6HYM8)
Coin 3 (sounds effect: the sounds of the coin while the bag is thrown)
(http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/mechanical_sounds.html)
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